Very little has gone right so far this year for the Rangers, from the injuries that have depleted the team’s attack to the surprisingly erratic play of Henrik Lundqvist and suspect work in front of him by the Blueshirts’ defensemen.

The biggest problem, however, is the team’s inconsistent effort, coach Alain Vigneault said.

“I do know that my teams compete, my teams play hard, and they’re hard to play,” he said. “We haven’t been that way, and it’s my responsibility to get us there.”

Vigneault said he has not been happy with the 2-5-0 Rangers’ effort in just two of their seven games.

When asked how they can improve on that, he simply said: “It’s just about being a professional.

“It’s not very hard to understand what I want,” Vigneault said. “It’s a matter of them putting the right compete level on the ice. If you do that, usually you’re in pretty good shape.”

The Rangers, it should be noted, echoed their new coach before his press conference, talking about giving maximum effort and not letting missteps get them down. Too often this season one bad play has snowballed, Ryan McDonagh said, one goal turning into two and three, one giveaway becoming an epidemic.

“If something bad happens, we’ve got to be able to respond in the right fashion,” the defenseman said. “We haven’t done that consistently enough. It seems like when we’ve given up a goal, we’ve become deflated and gone away from what we’ve done in the past to be successful.”

The Rangers hope this mini break, four days between games, will benefit them. On Monday, Vigneault put them through extra conditioning, and Tuesday’s practice wasn’t a typical early-season workout. Wednesday figures to be more of the same.

Nevertheless, the porous defense — the Rangers have allowed 29 goals, tied for third most in the NHL — is a departure from the stingy unit that hasn’t lost any pieces from last year. Lundqvist, who missed his second straight practice with what the team termed a “minor issue,” hasn’t had much help, and the all-world goaltender hasn’t performed well either, according to Vigneault.

The new system is an excuse neither the coach nor the players were willing to use on Tuesday. The Rangers, McDonagh pointed out, blanked the Capitals on Oct. 16 with that system. There have been too many breakaways and odd-man rushes, easy second and third-chances, and poor puck management out of the blue-liners.

“We have to take some of the onus there, have some pride and make some adjustments,” McDonagh said. “We’ve had a few games like the Washington win where we’ve proven we can play tough defensively and create offense at the same time. So it’s just a matter of finding that right execution and balance and confidence.”

Vigneault has seen that effort and execution in pieces, singular games and individual periods. It will have to happen more often for the Rangers to shake their struggles.

“There’s still some understanding on their part to put [it] together, but that being said, our situation right now in my estimation has a lot less to do with that and a lot more to do with us competing better, competing harder, and having a push when a push is needed on the ice,” the coach said. “For whatever reason, it hasn’t been there as consistently as it needs to be at the NHL level. Hopefully, we’ll be better, and that’s what we’re talking to our players about.”

This team is just not clicking. It's AV's job to implement a system that works for the personnel on hand. It appears as if he is attempting to fit a square peg in a round hole with his offensive attack style. Oh yeah...did I also mention that Sather is a bum

Sure, naturally there's going to be an adjustment period with a change of coaches and playing style. The complex issue is that the Rangers didn't have any margin for error to begin with because we don't have an overwhelming offense we can't compensate for compounded issues such as some new play/mindset, injuries and sub-par performance (Lundquist and our D).

The "adjustment" issue can be tricky because there are some things that never change, such as playing hard and smart. McDonagh brings up an excellent point that we know happens in sports: when you're behind in score or make a mistake you start to compound problems and try to over-respond to the problems which may cause additional mistakes and sloppy play.

Yeah the team was at its best with strong defensive-grit play under Trots but now it doesn't mean that we are scrapping that style for a free-for-all style.

Would it surprise anyone if maybe Lundquist is playing hurt or something? Would I feel a bit relieved that it may be the reason? Competitively, of course we don't want that kind of news becoming public.

Definitely give our boys some time. We get some players back; we get our D cohesive; we trust in each other and find our adjusted identity and I still truly believe we can be competitive and a difficult team to play against. Let's go Rangers.

No question he's right. Many players probably used to having things drilled into them before, during and after games with Torts. They seem to be taking it too easy and taking advantage of this new style by AV and his assistants. Good players in the group not baring down consistently enough and will play better. Problem is we have two many weaknesses in our forward lines to compete effectively, even if we were completely healthy up there. Not enough size, grit, toughness and puck winning ability throughout our forward lines to have a complete and effective offense. Sather has done a poor job here and should be help accountable. Don't see the media coming down on him at all. They cover the team and they should be talking about that. Perhaps Slat's has them in his back pocket like he does Dolan.

Sometimes "cleaning house" can be in the form of increasing and decreasing certain player's ice time and roles. But when it comes to our defense how are we going to do that? Currently our best option is for our D to get back on track and play to the level they are capable of. Our D is real good if we can achieve that.

Most players truly do play hard and with passion, it's usually more about cohesion and familiarity between players.

@Paul D There is obviously something going on that we aren't privy too because when you look at the totality of Sather's record here, his drafting as a whole his free agent signings and coaching changes (on #6 including) himself let alone his trades, the fact that only Philip Bondy back in 2009 wrote a scathing indictment of Sather's record and nothing since indicates to me that there is obviously a lot of collusion behind the scenes to keep Sather untouchable. However, all you can do as a fan is boycott going to the games and buying the swag until such time as a change in GM is made. If enough people actually did that rather than throw good money at a bad investment, then maybe the message will be felt. Dolan never realized that a golfing buddy may not also be a good NHL executive.